2006 Catering Study: Spreading the word

Half say catering revenue grew in 2006, led by colleges (70% of them) and B&I (66%).

Yearly reminder: “One of the biggest challenges we face is people will look at our Web site and think that is all we do,” he says. “So we do a Taste of Catering once a year—we invite customers and university decision-makers to a food fair that highlights new menu ideas and reintroduces us to our customer base.”

One of the goals of these efforts is to convince customers that Brigham Young University Dining “can create any type of meal to go with their event,” Wright continues. For example, a recent Scottish dinner staged by the English department honoring the poet Robert Burns featured smoked salmon chowder, beet greens salad, potato scones, herb-crusted lamb with root vegetables.”

Breakfast is mostly a drop-off business, the study shows. Sixty-two percent of breakfast revenue among all operators that cater breakfast comes from drop-off events, compared to 38% for full service. Logically, the opposite is true for dinner: three-quarters of revenue is full-service, one-quarter is drop-off. For lunch, the business splits nearly evenly at 45%/55%.

It was a decision that brought the duo recognition at Monday night’s MenuDirections 2015 awards ceremony in Memphis, Tenn., which is part of FoodService Director magazine’s annual conference geared towards foodservice operators and suppliers.